Ghost Recon as a series was always a third or fourth place finisher in my mind for military shooters. Call of Duty and Battlefield were the top two in the industry and Ghost Recon was always kind of just there. I wanted to give this a fair shot so I sat down and decided to play through the game trying not to compare it to those two titles. It ended up being very easy as this game plays much different and also much smoother in my opinion. The game feels more like Gears of War than it does Call of Duty or Battlefield. Additionally, this story felt more together and not just like a fraction of a story. Let’s give it a full review.

Visuals

This game has amazing graphics. Using any of the goggles, such as night vision or the magnetic view goggles, shows just how detail is in the game. Without the goggles, the surrounding areas look great and the scope shooting view really is impressive showing how visually impressive this game is. Each gun looks different and shows every detail.

Sounds

The character voices are great. When you first put the disc in, it encourages you to download the game to the hard-drive but also strongly suggest you at least download the audio to enhance the experience. It took maybe three to five minutes to download but it does make a difference. The shooting also sounds very realistic. If you fire a gun you hear the pop as well as hear what it hits pretty clearly. The weather or surrounding area also sounds great. You can hear chatter pretty clearly as well as screams.

Controls

This game plays very smoothly. There are some different controls that the game explains very well. Using the drone for example, has flight controls and ground controls. It took a few minutes to get used to but it wasn’t terrible by any means. The Kinect controls were great as well. I never felt like they were unresponsive. I would say that it felt weird playing a game that is a shooter by using Kinect. If you decide to use Kinect, I encourage you to play on the easiest difficulty and get used to it. This is a new experience and there is a bit of a learning curve.

As I mentioned earlier, the game feels a lot more like Gears of War than it does Call of Duty. The reason is the controls and the camera. The camera angle is over the shoulder much like Gears and it also features a very smooth cover system that is extremely similar to Gears.

Gameplay

There are two different components to this game’s gameplay. First, the story mode/campaign is solid by all industry standards. The game’s story is really good. It keeps you interested and you never really feel like you are bored or playing the same missions over and over again. I felt like the game was complete and at the end the mission feels accomplished. The cut scenes in between were done with perfection and the short videos explaining the mission were just as good. After watching the videos you are told of any new equipment you may have and how to use it. The equipment can be as simple as the tactical cloak or as complex as the drone. Most of the time, even if you bypass this screen during the game it will tell you what to do to use the equipment. After this, you pick your weapons. The game does tell you what it suggests for the mission. If you pick a non-silenced weapon when you need to be silent, it will warn you ahead of time. Then it’s time to jump in the game and play. The missions are pretty long in time and take you through some cool experiences.

The second part of the game is the multiplayer versus. I feel this is a pretty solid multiplayer mode. The game plays just like any other multiplayer shooter. You select your spawn location, your class, and you run at it. It isn’t hard by any means. One of the benefits of playing the game is the fact that you can level up and unlock perks and customizations. One fun feature is that the game included decision points. These are when you have to pick between one customization or another. It could be a weapon or barrel or attachment. They do a great job of making you wonder if you are making the right decision.

The game features amazing customization for weapons. You can customize everything from the barrel to the stock, to type of firing gas, etc. They do an amazing job of making you feel like you are creating your own weapon each time you change it up. This was one feature that really hooked me last year at E3. When they showed off the customization, I figured they couldn’t deliver on how good it looked. I was wrong; they did a great job of delivering one of the most extensive customized weapons options and features.

Replay Factor

As for the story, there isn’t much of a reason to replay it unless you want to give Kinect a shot. The multiplayer on the other hand gives a great reason to keep playing. The multiplayer has a few different modes and plenty of maps so you should have plenty of reason to keep playing. The reason you should keep playing this is just like any other shooter, you want to keep gaining levels and weapons. It makes it easier if you have friends. Also, the story mode is four player co-op which means more friends and more playthroughs if you are interested in that type of thing.

The 411

Overall this game is as good as they come. I find it very hard to give any game a ten but this is up there with the Call of Duties and Battlefield games out there. I strongly recommend this game if you prefer the Gears of War style of game play over the first person shooter style. There is more focus on planning and stealth and not so much on the run and gun aspects of the other games.

Graphics

9.0

Awesome graphics. A few areas do look rushed and unpolished though.

Gameplay

9.0

Fun and Easy to Play with a great co-op story

Sound

8.5

Voice Acting is Great, Would Prefer it to be a bit louder though

Lasting Appeal

8.5

Fun game that offers a bit more than the average multiplayer shooter

Fun Factor

9.0

The game is tons of fun whether you are playing by yourself or with a friend.